Hi everyone. I'm new to this forum and I only really joined to ask a question that I haven't been able to find the answer to. If anyone could help me I would really really appreciate it.

Okay. So I've been "lucid dreaming", since that's the only way I can semi-accurately describe it, since I was very young. I didn't really even know what lucid dreams were at the time, I just knew that sometimes when I dreamed I could control myself in the dreams and make decisions for myself. I didn't know that the rules of dreaming were that you followed the dream and did what the dream wanted you to do, you aren't supposed to know you're dreaming, etc. Well, I didn't really know I was dreaming when I was younger. All I knew was there were some fantastic places I would go when I was sleeping. There were also very scary places as well. And I could exist in those places when I was sleeping. They were just really fun (and sometimes really frightening) dreams. As I got older the dreams were more frequent and they began to become more and more mundane. Now I get them quite frequently, and I know I'm lucid dreaming. I don't get particularly scary ones anymore either. All I know is that when they do occur I'm in a place I would normally be in the waking world, but the location of places and the places themselves are really messed up. I also notice that if I go to, say, a McDonald's in the dream because I'm hungry, I'll go in and the menu will be full of weird food I've never heard of instead of the regular McDonald's menu. Or if I sit down at a computer and try to type something, I won't get the words I'm typing, I'll just get a jumbled mess of gibberish. And it doesn't matter if I watch the keyboard to make sure I'm typing the right thing because I still get gibberish on the screen. I feel almost like I can control myself but the dream doesn't want me to control it. And when I do manipulate something in the environment it gives me a generally negative result (wanting food, materializing it and when I get it it's spoiled.) I also communicate with my subconscious through my "thoughts" in the dream and I can't materialize it into an actual person or animal no matter how hard I try. What do you think is happening? Am I even having lucid dreams? I'd appreciate any help I can get.

Yes by what you said you are lucid dreaming. It is normal for a LD to be not exactly how one wants it as ones subconsciousness is manifesting the dream too so putting in unexpected things.

How are you trying to manifest an animal or person into the LD? are you trying to do it by trying to manifest it right before you. If so stop trying it that way. To manifest something, have it out of your sight at first eg around a corner or behind you. To manifest a person, I just think of that person being in the next room from me and then think about them walking in to where I are and in a few seconds they do. You need to believe you can do this, if you dont believe, it may not work.

if I sit down at a computer and try to type something, I won't get the words I'm typing, I'll just get a jumbled mess of gibberish. And it doesn't matter if I watch the keyboard to make sure I'm typing the right thing because I still get gibberish on the screen

that very very commonly happens in LDs, phones are usually an issue too in LDs.